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City plot summer clearout to slash £200m wage bill

Joleon Lescott could find himself surplus to requirements at the Etihad (Alex Livesey)

MANCHESTER CITY are planning a radical restructure of a player recruitment policy that has seen their wage bill rise above £200m and threaten the club’s ability to comply with Uefa’s Financial Fair Play.

Ferran Soriano and Txiki Begiristain, City’s recently appointed chief executive and director of football, want to cut the number of players on the books. City currently have in excess of 50 professionals and the former Barcelona executives calculate that more than half of them need to be moved on.“They are amazed how many players City have under contract who are not capable of playing for the first team,” a source said.

After this year’s Champions League exit, Soriano and Begiristain want to abandon City’s transfer strategy of recruiting the world’s best player in a given position and using Abu Dhabi’s financial largesse to outbid their rivals.